The Taylor System—Man’s Enslavement by the Machine

Published:Put PravdyNo. 35, March 13, 1914.

      Signed:M. M..

      Published according to the text inPut Pravdy.Source:Lenin
	  Collected Works,

      Progress Publishers,1972,

      Moscow,Volume 20,

      pages152-154.Translated:Bernard Isaacs and The Late Joe FinebergTranscription\Markup:R. CymbalaPublic Domain:Lenin Internet Archive

      (2004).You may freely copy, distribute,
	display and perform this work; as well as make derivative and
	commercial works. Please credit “Marxists Internet
	Archive” as your source.

Capitalismcannot be at a standstill for a single
moment. It must forever be moving forward. Competition, which is keenest in
a period of crisis like the present, calls for the invention of an
increasing number of new devices to reduce the cost of production. But the
domination of capital converts all these devices into instruments for the
further exploitation of the workers.

TheTaylor system is one of these devices.

Advocatesof this system recently used the following techniques in
America.

Anelectric lamp was attached to a worker’s arm, the worker’s movements
were photographed and the movements of the lamp studied. Certain movements
were found to be to “superfluous” and the worker was made to avoid them,
i.e., to work more intensively, without losing a second for rest.

Thelayout of new factory buildings is planned in such a way that not a
moment will be lost in delivering materials to the factory, in conveying
them from one shop to another, and in dispatching the finished
products. The cinema is systematically employed for studying the work of
the best operatives and increasing its intensity, i.e., “speeding up” the
workers.

Forexample, a mechanic’s operations were filmed in the course of a
whole day. After studying the mechanic’s movements the efficiency experts
provided him with a bench high enough to enable him to avoid losing time in
bending down. He was given a boy to assist him. This boy had to hand up
each part of the machine in a definite and most efficient way. Within a few
days the mechanic performed the work ofassembling the given type of machine inone-fourthof the time it
had taken before!

Whatan enormous gain in labour productivity!... But the worker’s pay
is not increased fourfold, but only half as much again, at the very most,
andonly for a short periodat that. As soon as the workers get
used to the new system their pay is cut to the former level. The capitalist
obtains an enormous profit, but the workers toil four times as hard as
before and wear down their nerves and muscles four times as fast as before.

Anewly engaged worker is taken to the factory cinema where he is shown
a “model” performance of his job; the worker is made to “catch up” with
that performance. A week later he is taken to the cinema again and shown
pictures of his own performance, Which is then compared with the “model”.

Allthese vast improvements are introduced tothe detrimentof
the workers, for they lead to their still greater oppression and
exploitation. Moreover, this rational and efficient distribution of labour
is confined toeach factory.

Thequestion naturally arises: What about the distribution of labour in
society as a whole? What a vast amount of labour is wasted at present owing
to the disorganised and chaotic character of capitalist production as a
whole! How much time is wasted as the raw materials pass to the factory
through the hands of hundreds of buyers and middlemen, while the
requirements of the market are unknown! Not only time, but the actual
products are wasted and damaged. And what about the waste of time and
labour in delivering the finished goods to the consumers through a host of
small middlemen who, too, cannot know the requirements of their customers
and perform not only a host of superfluous movements, but also make a host
of superfluous purchases, journeys, and so on and so forth!

Capitalorganises and rationalises labour within the factory for the
purpose of increasing the exploitation of the workers and increasing
profit. In social production as a whole, however, chaos continues to reign
and grow, leading to crises when the accumulated wealth cannot find
purchasers, and millions of workers starve because they are unable to find
employment.

TheTaylor system—without its initiators knowing or wishing it—is
preparing the time when the proletariat will take over all social
production and appoint its own workers’ committees for the purpose of
properly distributing and rationalising all social labour. Large-scale
production, machinery, railways, telephone—all provide thousands of
opportunities to cut by three-fourths the working time of the organised
workers and make them four times better off than they are today.

Andthese workers’ committees, assisted by the workers’ unions, will be
able to apply these principles of rational distribution of social labour
when the latter is freed from its enslavement by capital.